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In a special Sunday night episode, CBI consultant Patrick Jane traps an art thief and murderer in a fun, twisted hour guaranteed to please fans of this People’s Choice favorite.

A $50 million painting is stolen and the son-in-law of an egotistical millionaire is killed. The man was hated by his father-in-law, a tyrannical, overbearing bastard who constantly puts his daughter and her husband down.

We discover that the stolen painting was actually a fake. When the millionaire takes the CBI team to his secret lair to show them the real one, Jane immediately identifies it as a fake.

That’s when things really get interesting.

Enter the Russian mob, suspicions about the millionaire’s motives, a talented forger and Jane’s disarming grin, and you have one hell of an episode.

For once, The Mentalist wasn’t easy to figure out. You have to really pay attention to the clues to get the whodunit. I typically have all sorts of convoluted ideas about the whodunit, then get disappointed when it is something so simple a chimp could write it. I felt like “Paint It Red” offered more subterfuge to keep viewers guessing than previous predictable episodes.

Was I the only one who detected Simon Baker’s real accent this time around? Many people have said they would love to here the Aussie native’s homeland tongue. A few times, I was quite certain he slipped into it. It was a bit jarring at first - but only because I was not used to hearing it. Bring it on full-time, please!

There was an interesting change in this episode. Throughout the season, Jane has always worked closely with CBI agent Teresa Lisbon, but this time, he worked with everyone but her. It was rather strange - almost like the boy in school who pretends not to like a girl to get her attention. I’m assuming this was because he wanted to break some rules, and Lisbon needed plausible deniability. Still, it felt…odd.

It was fun, though, to see the character interact on more than a surface level with other CBI agents.

I LOVED Jane’s tactics with the Russian mob. He plays them for fools - but gently, so as not to get killed - and uses a slight of hand (and a little help from his CBI buddies) to get the real painting back.

On thing I did not like in this episode - something that was nearly a deal breaker for me: Jane gets the sexy redheaded Agent Van Pelt on an excursion to an artists shop, where Jane discovers the forgeries. Jane is rather cruel as he tells the painter not to pain Van Pelt’s eyes too close. I know they set it up with her saying he should not embarrass her, but this was almost… Well, it just wasn’t nice. It wasn’t fun and games, the way Jane normally plays. I really did not like it.

This episode continues to drive The Mentalist toward an excellent first season. For the most part, the show has sustained an incredible following by offering great stories, fantastic acting and cast chemistry. More than 20 million tune in each week, despite the fact that most episodes are predictable. Hopefully the momentum continues

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